There is a very interesting testimony posted on UBF website. The author of the testimony seems to be very intelligent person. I have hardly seen such a well organized testimony during my entire stay in UBF. The testimony articulates very well how a person is changed to become a committed member of UBF. It describes very vividly what a person has to go through. The author examines almost every detail of emotional, psychological, intellectual and theological processes of how a person is changed into a committed UBF member. I think all committed UBF members went through the same process that is described in this testimony even though most of them cannot articulate as clearly as the author of the testimony. I think this testimony is a textbook of what UBF system does to turn a person into a devotee of Samuel Lee so that the person commits his/her life to protect the power structure set up to glorify Samuel Lee.

According to the testimony, the most important thing of the process seems to be I had to let go of my human understanding. The author is very intelligent so she needs to "qualify" this conclusion by saying that I began questioning everything I believed in, both humanly and spiritually. Instead of meditating purely on God’s word, I interpreted it according to my own understanding and selfish motives. I could not trust myself. But she fails to ask herself whether or not UBF is truly biblically sound system. She questions only about her being imperfect. She never asks whether or not UBF is perfect enough to ask her not to trust herself but UBF system.

Then I became torn between a sense of a “sure thing” in achieving my own happiness, and giving that control to God, which seemed less of a “sure thing. The next thing seems to be the problem of control. In UBF the idea of “my own man” is the most dangerous thing. You have to surrender your control to UBF. Otherwise you are a proud and humanistic rebel. But this is done in the name of God. The author does not further qualify the statement “giving that control to God.” Clearly giving the control to God and giving the control to UBF are very different.

My understanding of Christ was limited and powerless because I limited him to my small understanding and petty hopes, both so human and insignificant. At this point UBF determines what is significant and spiritual in the person’s life. As a practical example of this the author talks about relationship. In UBF a person marries the one the UBF system chooses. I consider this the ultimate control over one's personal life.

In doing so, he could obey God when he was asked to offer Isaac to him. In the same way, I want my motivation to be strong and unwavering, able to endure to the end, against all hope, and rising above all obstacles. UBF requires absolute obedience to its system with no questions asked. UBF requires absolute loyalty to the glorification of Samuel Lee. But this is very very different from Abraham’s absolute obedience to God. Again the author fails to ask if her obedience is to God or to UBF.

There is no doubt that the author is very intelligent and also very spiritual person. The author examines herself in a very painstaking way but to our amazement she fails to examine the UBF system with the same amount of effort. If she had to examine herself in such an arduous way, she should have asked herself how she could qualify that UBF system is sound Christian system. I do not find her effort of doing this in her great testimony. Maybe that is not her fault. Maybe it is what UBF testimony is for: to focus more on self-criticism than on system-criticism.

I think you analyzed this very well. Yes, UBF teaches this kind of "humility". You cannot trust anybody, not even yourself. You cannot trust any other people outside UBF, because of their "human thinking" as well. So you can trust only UBF. I think this is a very dangerous teaching.

What they don't see is that in the end, you always need to trust yourself that you understood the word of God in the Bible correctly or that you chose the right people to patronize you. Or rather you need to trust God so much that *he* (through the Spirit) will help you get the right understanding of the Bible if your read it seriously.

But UBF people start with another subconscious axiom: UBF leaders and UBF interpretation is trustworthy per definition, UBF is the way how God speaks to me directly. If the leader challenges a person to do something, this is considered as God's direct command. So you have only the possibility to obey God or not. The third possibility, that it was just the word of a man and not the will of God, is excluded. This is the essence of all the UBF indoctrination through Sunday messages and 1:1 study: Make people believe that this third possibility does not exist, but that always UBF=God. This belief is not even conscious, but subconcious.

Any questioning of what UBF leaders say or do would be already considered not humble in UBF. If you start to think critically or even start to reflect or question things, you are already considered "proud" (not only by others, but your own thinking is that way). You cannot judge anything that UBF teaches or has determined for you, this would mean being "proud". You cannot judge the organization.

UBFins can very well judge and criticize other organizations (other churches) or other authorities (parents), so they do not lack this ability to judge others generally. But they think UBF is too "holy" or "exempt" for being questioned. What is the reason for this? I think there are two reasons:

1) The daily indoctrination. Everybody in UBF lives on the basis of "God=UBF". You soon subconsciously make this also an axiom of your life.

2) Your personal experience. You interpret the fact that UBF missionaries knocked on your door as a miraculous sign that God chose to speak to you to UBF. You interpret the fact that you started understanding the Bible or got your first emotional personal experience with God in UBF, e.g. on a conference or during a Bible study, and that you are emotionally touched when singing spiritual songs in UBF, as proof that God=UBF. At least you become sure that the equation "God=UBF" is true for you personally (and that is enough for the UBF leaders to control you).

These two factors are very powerful, don't underestimate them. They affect your subconscious and your emotions. They are much more powerful than rational thinking.

But UBF people start with another subconscious axiom: UBF leaders and UBF interpretation is trustworthy per definition, UBF is the way how God speaks to me directly. If the leader challenges a person to do something, this is considered as God's direct command. So you have only the possibility to obey God or not. The third possibility, that it was just the word of a man and not the will of God, is excluded. This is the essence of all the UBF indoctrination through Sunday messages and 1:1 study: Make people believe that this third possibility does not exist, but that always UBF=God. This belief is not even conscious, but subconcious.

As discussed here, many cult leaders especially from Korea are trying to establish the subconscious axioms such as UBF=God in the mind of their members by convincing them that "human" understanding is "evil" and in that process they shut down their "human" understanding completely. Samuel Lee didn't mind employing spiritual and theological violences to accomplish this purpose through ridiculous horror stories and false theology.

There are the obvious signs of her being led down the path of UBF's "cursed woman's desire-true husband-marriage by faith" false teaching. There's also this very disturbing notion that her relationship, her being in love in her early 20s, was just "a chemical reaction in the brain." Is this what they teach now about "human love" in UBF to enforce the (functional) marriage by faith program? What a perversion. Why do we have the "Song of Songs" in the Bible?

But my biggest objection is the reward- and merit-centeredness of the whole thing, which is not a surprise in the UBF environment in which grace (free gift, not reward) is a word but a foreign concept. The recognition and appreciation of grace is the key to salvation, happiness and freedom as a Christian. We sacrifice and give things up because we are led to or commanded to by God, but what God wants us to have is a free gift, not a reward that we can earn with sacrifices. UBF doesn't get it.